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Military Skinheads

Thursday, April 24 2008 by | Send to a friend

MILITARY SKINHEADS

TJ Leyden

The Army and Marine Corps are allowing an increasing number of felons to enlist, according to new information from the Department of Defense. Some recruits have been convicted of assault, burglary, drug possession and making terrorist threats.

TJ Leyden tells Dick Gordon that he joined the Marines in the late 1980s not to serve his country, but to aid the neo-Nazi movement. TJ was once a racist skinhead who tried to recruit other Marines into white supremacist organizations. He talks about how he eventually abandoned extremism, and how he now he travels the country teaching people about the dangers of hate groups.

TJ recently wrote a book about his experiences, Skinhead Confessions: From Hate To Hope.

Odd Jobs: Living in Two Worlds

Last week, Dick talked to an author who supported her writing by cleaning houses. He asked listeners to contact the show if they also worked at mismatched jobs.

"Grace" contacted us. She was like every aspiring actress in LA - taking acting classes, going to auditions, and working part-time jobs to pay the bills. But either the pay wasn't enough, or the hours were wrong.

She finally struck the right balance by combining the steady pay of substitute teaching with a lucrative night job - exotic dancing. Grace talks with Dick about what it's like living and working in those two worlds.